1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to collectible trading cards. In particular, the present invention is directed to collectible trading cards which feature information relating to a corporate business entity and an investment game using the collectible trading cards which is designed to raise awareness in the concepts of investing in the stock market.
2. Description of the Related Art
The history of trading cards began with the advent of professional sports in America during the nineteenth century. Tobacco manufacturers first produced trading cards and included them as a free accompaniment with a purchase of their products. These cards consisted of sections of a cardboard base having printed images of sports figures on one side and statistical information for that respective sport figure on an opposite side. It was not until the emergence of television during the Golden Age of sports, associated with the 1950""s and athletes such as Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Unitas, and Bill Russell, did trading cards become a favorite hobby of Americans. Today, the trading of sports cards makes up a multi-billion dollar industry dominated not only by children, but avid, knowledgeable sports fans seeking wise investments. However, there are currently no trading cards on the market which are geared for educating novice investors on the stock market.
There have been numerous games associated with the trading of stocks. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,674 to Bukowsky discloses a stock market game including a display unit which provides players with information concerning the current value of stocks within the game and provides a running total of the value of the stock portfolios they have built. The current value of the stocks, however, is randomly generated by a processing unit, and thus, is not based upon actual stock market conditions. While the game uses an electronic display, it is a board game which is not capable of being played online. Also, the reference fails to disclose a collectible stock card for use in combination with the investment game.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,747 to Nebel discloses a stock market game for play by a one or more players which simulates for each player security transactions and includes stock certificates of seven companies represented on the game. The stock certificates, however, are of fictitious companies whose value is generated by the roll of a pair of dice.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,750 to Enrody discloses a trading card game including cards that are designed to represent commodities, industries or any property that can be traded in the real world. The game fails to specifically disclose, however, a collectible trading card system featuring publicly-traded corporations and including a graphic representation of notable products and/or images of the respective corporation and textual stock information pertaining to that corporation.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the invention to overcome the disadvantages in the related art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a set of collectible trading card designed to raise the awareness of the principles of stock investing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an educational game based on a set of trading cards and which simulates actual investment scenarios which occur on an equities exchange.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an online investment game for participation by both novice and skilled stock market investors.
These and other objects are achieved in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention in providing a collectible trading card featuring information relating to a corporate business entity, such as a publicly traded corporation in an equities market. Preferably, the card comprises a relatively thin base material having a front surface and a back surface. The front surface of the stock card may include at least a picture of notable products or images of a selected corporate business entity, while the back surface is provided at least with indicia of financial and product information relevant to that corporation. The information provided may include publicly released corporate business entity data such as share price, annual revenues and earnings.
In addition, each stock card is provided with an issue date, the xe2x80x9cissue datexe2x80x9d being defined here as an arbitrary date assigned to each stock card to provide a point of reference in determining the theoretical value of the card and is preferably the date in which the card is issued, produced or offered for sale. Each card is also provided with a theoretical share value, or xe2x80x9cissue pricexe2x80x9d, which correlates directly with the actual value of the stock of the corporate business entity represented on the card on the issue date. Preferably, each stock card is provided with educational features that will assist the novice trading card collector in learning the basic fundamentals of investing, trading and asset management. However, an individual xe2x80x9ceducational cardxe2x80x9d may be provided to better educate the collector of the various terms and strategies that are involved in equity trading. Purchasers, collectors or collectors of a stock may engage in trading one or more of their respective cards with other collectors in order to build a complete set of cards based on their portfolio objectives or to obtain every card issued in a series of cards.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a set of stock cards are used to participate in an online investment game based on the collection and/or trade of one or more stock cards. The online game, unlike conventional board games, creates a game that simulates actual investment scenarios using stock cards which represent actual corporate business entities. An objective of the online trading game is for each participating player to build a portfolio of stock cards based on their respective portfolio goals. The player/collector trades, or collects, cards to meet their respective portfolio objectives.
For purposes of playing the online game, a single stock card represents one theoretical share of the respective corporate business entity depicted on the stock card. One advantage of the online game in accordance with the present invention is that the theoretical value of the card changes depending upon the actual or real-time value of one share of the corporate business entity indicated on the stock card. The actual or real-time value is defined here as the market price of one share of the respective corporate business entity""s stock at the end of an equities trading day. Accordingly, fluctuations in the stock market will directly affect the theoretical value of a stock card, and thus, makes it desirable for the collector to hold the stock card in hopes that the value of the corporate business entity""s stock increases over time.
Preferably, a new set of trading cards are produced at least once every calendar year, and will include updated public information from the selected corporate business entities. Each set of cards will include a card which lists every corporate business entity represented during that calendar year. Through trading, participating in the online activities and use of the educational cards, collectors will learn about various investment strategies and relevant financial information based on actual stock market conditions.
As previously mentioned, each card will have indicia indicating certain financial and product information such as the issue price and the number of shares each card represents. The collector of the stock card will have theoretical shares of stock that become more or less valuable depending upon the current actual market price obtained from the stock exchange where that stock trades. In addition, collectors of the stock cards may trade their cards with other collectors in an effort to build a portfolio of stock cards that meet their personal stock card portfolio objectives and risk tolerances. Accordingly, participants in the online game in accordance with the present invention learn fundamental investment skills and strategies using the trading cards to build an investment portfolio based on actual corporate business entities and actual stock market conditions.